


TESOctober Challenge 2020

by Nefaelibata



Series: October Challenges [1]
Category: Elder Scrolls, Elder Scrolls Online, Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst, Female Protagonist, Fluff and Angst, Gay Male Character, House Telvanni (Elder Scrolls), Implied/Referenced Sex, LGBT, Magic, October Prompt Challenge, Rambling
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-12
Updated: 2020-10-12
Packaged: 2021-03-08 01:41:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 2,485
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26963845
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nefaelibata/pseuds/Nefaelibata
Summary: THESE ARE NOT MEANT TO BE FULL-FLEDGED STORIES LIKE THE ONE FROM A COUPLE OF YEARS AGO.I’m just brain-vomiting at this point because I’m in the process of writing another huge story with a friend.my bad for not finishing this lol school/every stress imagineable got in the way (my bad) + the aforementioned story is a part tooit's nice to stand true to my bio lolPrompt list from Thana.Topsy and mrsspockulous on Instagram, thank you!
Series: October Challenges [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1967686
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5
Collections: Daily Prompt





	1. Hero

**Author's Note:**

> My school up and BLOCKED ao3 on school computers so I can’t update here like I used to >:(  
> I have to do this from my phone... smh...  
> Either way, PLEASE understand that all of these ramblings are entirely unedited, not beta-read, OR intended to flow as a story. Many of these are unfinished, too! 
> 
> Again, prompt list comes from Thana.Topsy on Instagram as well as on Ao3!!!  
> Here is the link to their art account (which is absolutely STUNNING in itself!) https://instagram.com/thana.topsy?igshid=zkqu3avslda5  
> And here is their Ao3 profile name:  
> Thanatopsiturvy

Mayren didn't consider herself to be the hero of her story.

She was an adventurer at heart, a sly thief in the mind, and a mischievous soul, but never a hero.

She knew what had to be done, and she did it.

The corruption within her group had gone on for far too long. Sure, they were pirates—social rejects, scorned for their line of work, attacked on sight—but they were still people, and people have emotion, and opinions, and feelings, and conflicts. Power had the ability to make someone corrupt; lusting for ultimate control.

They certainly had power.

Most of it, in fact.

Her captain was ruthless. Kind, but ruthless. Protecting his allies valiantly, defending territories until other pirates simply gave up and joined sides. He amassed fleets of ships that traveled, robbed, and conquered.

During the few encounters she had with him, he was nothing but kind to her and everyone else. He commanded, but did so respectfully. She looked up to him as a leader, trying to figure out what exactly he was planning, how prosperous he wanted to make his army of pirates.

Always planning, always waiting, always consulting. He had a huge plan, she could tell.

The prosperity he brought upon everyone was a pulling factor for new allies, and perhaps that was where he went wrong—being so willing to accept newcomers. Word of their wealth spread overseas fast and far into Tamriel. Too fast.

And too soon did the captain open up about his desire to build a city. A pirate haven. Someplace everyone could live and feel safe in, free from the dangers of getting assaulted by guards and thrown into jail. People were getting impatient.

One late summer evening, the ship rocking gently over the waves, a group of her own crewmates huddled together on deck and conspired against their captain. She wasn't able to hear everything they were saying, the crash of the waves ashore carried far and drowned out their hushed whispers and gravelly murmurs, but they hadn't been kind, nor were they of good-intent.

The very next day, she told the captain,

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"How did you know it was me?" She gasped out, glancing nervously down at the cold water below.

His rancid breath made her want to gag as he sneered. "You're the captain's most loyal crewmate, yaknow that, girly?" He shoved her back further off the side. "Goin' on and on about how highly you think of your stupid captain—he don't promise nothing!" He spat.

"But-but he's so close!"

"We've been-a waiting far too long, stupid girl. We don't get paid enough on this damned ship to be waitin' around!"

"Toss 'er over the edge! She's gotten in our business!"

Before she knew it, icy water hit her back, and soon engulfed her entirely.


	2. Restoration

As the tribesmen took her back to camp, Mayren sputtered and murmured slurred, incoherent words. Repeating "going to kill him," "Must save him—" utterly delusional. Hurriedly, she was placed on a soft bedroll and the healers rushed in to see if she had been injured anywhere.

She awoke with a gasp, eyes flying open, heart hammering, throat and lungs burning, but most importantly, she was alive. With horror, her eyes bounced around her location and noticed that it was a tent. Brown leather stretched across large curved branches. Candlelight bounced off its walls and illuminated the entire place. She also noted movement from her peripheral and saw that it belonged to a person. She choked on a gasp and found it impossible to form words. An ache she didn't realize surrounded her head and entire body sharpened at the sudden movement.

"Oy, she's awake!" The person hollered after sticking their face out of the entryway.

Two women bundled in fur and leather stepped inside and knelt beside her. Immediately they went to propping her up, getting water into her system, covering her in another blanket. She was dazed, but she felt safe.


	3. Ayleid

Hasjix looked around in awe. She'd never seen such a library as that.   
Gigantic bookcases made of white stone towered over her and the group of mages behind her. To everyone's amazement, they were entirely intact—most of which still covered with dark metal doors, marked by the signature Aylied metal designs.   
While the others hurried off to explore the rest of the gigantic room, she simply stood there, admiring the place. All this ancient knowledge, all sorts of ancient stories—so much lore… a smile threatened to break onto her face. Truly, it took her breath away. Knowledge was something she craved, something she longed for. To hear of the greatest wizards, philosophers, scientists, and all of their accomplishments fueled all of her dreams to be almost purely lore-based—filled to the brim with fantasies of knowing the complete histories of different cultures, spellbooks upon spellbooks lying around her own residence. 

"Hasjix, are you alright?"   
She nodded. "Quite."   
"Impressive, isn't it?"   
"Very. Can you read any of the titles?"   
"I can indeed. Are you interested in learning?"   
"Yes. I want to read every single book in this room some day."


	4. Modern AU

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is literally so stupid   
> I’m actually embarrassed to post this

Flynn was absolutely an Ariana Grande person.

Every morning, he'd start off his day with 'God Is A Woman' and end by listening to 'Breathing' in the evening.

Her songs filled him with so much energy and life. Out in public, he'd listen to her music and gain an ounce of confidence he didn't have before—stick his head up a little bit higher, walk proud, smile with kindness in the eyes. It seemed as though with her sweet words pouring through his headphones, nothing else mattered except for himself in that moment.

His students certainly enjoyed listening to her during class if and when he gave them worktime. Usually, that would happen on the last day of the school week. He hated to see his students in distress over homework and studying in either his class or another professor's class.


	5. Illusion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The formatting won’t transfer from my phone... *sigh* that’s okay.

It was as if a veil had been lifted; like something stored far in the back of her mind finally was released. Coming out of the fog.

Neloth studied her impassively. A touch of worry kept his mouth downturned just a little more than normal, but he remained expressionless otherwise. "You look disgusted."

Mayren certainly felt disgusted. Nausesa bubbled in her stomach and up to her throat, and before she knew it, she was grabbing an empty jar nearby and doing her best to contain the vomit in it.

"Oh—" Neloth hurried off to grab a potion that assists with taming nauesa. "Here, take this."

In the midst of her heavy breathing, feverish and shivering, she thanked him and downed the entire thing. "Well," she sighed out, "it worked."

Unsure whether he should be pleased or not, Neloth hummed in neutral agreement. "What do you remember?"

"Telling my captain that crewmates were planning to assassinate them, and then getting thrown off the ship the next day. I don't know if they actually succeeded or not."

"Interesting. Were you close with your captain?"

"No, but I look—looked?—well, either way, he's a role model." She wiped her mouth with her sleeve and grimaced with disgust. "Ugh." She then became acutely aware of the fact that the jar in her hand was warm, and the vile odor emitting from the vomit was enough to spur her into action. "I feel fine. What do I um—sorry. What do I do with this?"

Neloth sighed. "I don't know. Just put it by the trash for now.

She couldn't believe it.

Thrown off the side of a boat and into the ice cold waters of Solstheim. That's why I'm on this island. Bitterly she clenched her fist in the fabric of her robes and placed the warm jar next to the large barrel for trash. I was left for dead.


	6. Alchemy

After weeks of (secretly) scheming with Edrisi, she and Flynn had finally come up with the perfect idealized formula for the potion. Something that he'd desired to try and use on either himself or another—or both.

To avoid putting any animals through the misery of exhaustion, they instead hoped it worked after several attempts to get the color, scent, and liquid consistency to what they hypothesized. They'd modeled it after several formulas found in semi-banned alchemical texts and hoped that their own creation would live up to those already recorded.

To test it, each stayed home for an entire day and took one small drop (in case they accidentally created something too powerful) and recorded the effects.

Edrisi remained unaffected for a majority of the day, save for discomfort for a few minutes after consumption, but she was otherwise fine.

Flynn, on the other hand, suffered the effects for longer than she did. Minutes after consumption, he, too started to feel the effects across his body. Cheeks flushing, sweat starting to gather, blood rushing south and successfully distracting him. The urges lasted at least over a half hour, not too long of a duration, but desire pulsed gently throughout him like an afterthought, something on the verge of surfacing.

Needless to say, the concoction worked, more to Flynn's excitement than Edrisi's.

The next day, he took one of the small vials for himself, eager to test it with his partner.


	7. Telvanni

Mayren screeched like a banshee as volts of lightning shot from her hands and into the sky. She laughed maniacally, eyebrows furrowed and eyes wide with madness, a furious grin pulling at her cheeks.

After recovering bits and pieces of her past with Neloth, she regained the knowledge for casting basic destruction spells. She remembered how she was in the middle of learning spells and magic techniques from some wizard, but she didn't know who. She immensely preferred it to swords and daggers.

Neloth gaped at her, mildly horrified. "Mayren—" he started, "MAYREN!" He snapped out and pinched the bridge of his nose. "What in the—Mayren, what are you doing??"

"I feel alive with so much power pounding through me. You seriously have no idea how it feels to cast spells again! I mean, you do this stuff every day!" She switched the spells in both hands to a gentle flame.

Neloth sighed, tired of her antics.

In all of his years, he’d never had an apprentice quite like her. While she did possess an unusual talent for spell casting, especially for an imperial, she had nowhere near enough skill to harness it usefully. He did give her credit for her boundless curiosity and nonexistent fear. Despite being an insufferable and sarcastic brat on top of it all, she’d begun to grow on him. Often times he’d catch himself thinking about her much like a parent would—a feat he desperately tried to show away and forget.


	8. Netch

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Netches are literally my favorite creature in all of the elder scrolls world and I live by that

loud gasp escaped her, and soon after, a gushy whine. She clasped her hands together and squealed and squirmed in place. "Look!" She pointed at the floating netch. "It's so cute!" She squeaked out and jumped up and down in place.

"Yes, yes, it's a netch. I don't think they're particularly cute, though—"

"Shut up, you old man! I've never seen one of these before, remember?!"

Neloth glared at her from behind and rolled his eyes.

She silenced herself after hearing an odd noise. A deep hum. Hmm. Hmm. Hmm. In awe, she soon realized that the netches were making the sound, floating around peacefully, swishing water around.

"I'm going to try and pet one."

"Mayren, don't."

"Books say they're relatively harmless. What could possibly happen?!"

"Relatively—mayren!"

She stepped away from Neloth and extended an arm, cautiously approaching one of the bull netches. At first it didn't recognize her presence, but when it did, the thing turned towards her curiously. One of its tentacles swung back and forth and grazed her leg when she got close enough.

Surely, the netch lowered a bit, and Mayren placed her hand on top of its rough top. Her mouth was wide with awe, eyes tearing up with excitement, heart thrumming with adrenaline. The gentle hums from the strange beast reverberated inside of itself and up her arm. Truly, then, she could feel energy in its purest, gentlest form.

Blue and purple light emitting from the base of it lit up the ground gently below and responded in brightness to her gentle pats and rubs.

Neloth stared at the encounter in confused awe. He had to admit, the girl had not a single ounce of fear inside of her, and to approach a creature she'd never seen in her life without a care in the world… it was concerningly impressive.


	9. Tribunal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sadly formatting doesn’t transfer via phone to this and I’m way too lazy to fix it right now please be patient lol

Dunmer history and politics confused her greatly. Vivec? Almalexia? Was it… now just who was the other guy… Sotha Sil? She frowned and dug her fingers into her scalp, frustrated.

There were so many details! So many names to remember, places to imagine, maps to study, dates to memorize—she'd never been had the need to learn so much information before. A majority of her life was spent overseas, anyway. 

Neloth forbade her from leaving Tel Mythrin's confines until she thoroughly understood the Tribunal and a plethora of other Dunmer history. He warned her that much of it was integrated in culture, and he didn't want to be embarrassed in public by "an uneducated imperial pirate" would the time ever come.


	10. Dwemer

Much like everyone else, Hasjix despised dwarven spiders and automatons. She despised the inklings of paranoia whenever her eyes would catch sight of a centurion from afar—no one could ever tell which ones were still working and which ones weren't— and she despised over-worrying for the safety of her crewmates when encountering machines of the like.

Despite the dangers around every corner, each crevice and step taken worthy of extra caution, dwarven ruins were filled with lore. So much lore. So much knowledge. She thirsted for it so. Secret tunnels leading to gigantic libraries, pathways and staircases a guide to an orrery, locked gates protectors of ancient treasure.


	11. Birth Sign

Flynn was born under the sign of The Lady.

The traits associated with the sign spoke volumes about his personality in itself: charismatic, kind, in good spirits. He wasn't as interested in the astrological signs as much as his mother and sister were, but he found it fascinating nevertheless how he and several of his family members, all of which born under different signs, happened to match general traits for each.

It also made sense how he felt connected to himself and the world around him when visiting the lady stone in Auridon. He made frequent, if not daily, trips to the stone from Vulkhel Guard while waiting for his books to be published. With a book in hand, he'd cautiosly wade through a shallower part of the pond to reach the small island planted inside and find a comfortable position in the blossom tree and read for hours.


End file.
